Community Structures of Dragonflies in Different Environmental Landscapes

This study was conducted to investigate the relative importance of geographic and landscape structural complexities in determining dragonfly community structures. Data on the occurrence and abundance of dragonflies collected from selected geographic locations from the Philippine islands of Mindanao, Camiguin and Negros Oriental were assessed using detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMMDS). Results showed that spatial configuration of habitats especially the landscape structure shape the community structures of dragonflies. The results of the tests performed on differences between community structures showed that dragonfly faunal assemblages are, to some extent, related to the type of environment and the landscape structure of the area. The differences in dragonfly species assemblage may be largely attributable to substantial differences in the physical environment (e.g. vegetation structure, water depth, flow rate etc.) suggestive of the 'importance of environmental variables in predicting the similarity of community structures.